1st guilty plea coming in Volusia mortgage fraud ring investigation

Friday

Oct 25, 2013 at 3:43 PM

By Lyda Longalyda.longa@news-jrnl.com

One of seven members of what federal agents have described as a multi-million-dollar mortgage fraud ring has agreed to plead guilty for his role in the group, federal court records show.When he enters his plea on Nov. 20 in federal court in Orlando, Sidney Coton, 53, of Deltona is expected to be the first among the members of the mortgage fraud ring to admit wrongdoing in the case which took the FBI almost four years to investigate.The same day Coton’s plea agreement was filed in federal court, the accused ringleader of the group — Jim Sotolongo — filed a motion in federal court asking for more freedom so that he can travel to the west coast of Florida to work for about a month. Sotolongo of Wilbur-by-the-Sea has been wearing an ankle monitor and has been subject to an 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. Both conditions will be removed, court records show.As part of his agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Orlando meanwhile, Coton — who was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States earlier this week — would be expected to divulge information about the Sotolongo Mortgage Fraud Ring, which FBI investigators have said was led by 48-year-old Sotolongo. Sotolongo and his live-in girlfriend, former real estate broker Ramara Garrett, as well as two other individuals, have all been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and are awaiting trial in federal court in December. Sotolongo and Garrett and their bus bench advertising company, Waverly Media LLC, are also the focus of a state investigation regarding in-kind campaign contributions made to several political candidates who ran for the Volusia County Council in 2010 and 2012. The State Attorney’s Office is looking at whether the contributions were illegal. One former employee of Waverly, Jim Brown, is already serving a five-year probation sentence in the campaign contribution case.Coton has been identified as one of the “straw buyers” in the widespread mortgage fraud scheme of more than $50 million which includes 20 high-dollar properties in Volusia County. The group also purchased expensive upscale properties in other parts of the state, the FBI has said. A straw buyer is an individual who pretends to be a legitimate buyer but is actually purchasing on behalf of another person. Often, the real buyer is unable to make the purchase for himself because of poor credit. In this case, federal investigators said Coton represented himself as someone who earned $45,000 a month so that he could get a loan to purchase an oceanfront residence in Daytona Beach Shores at just over $2 million. The house is one of those listed in the FBI’s investigation and it eventually fell into foreclosure because the mortgage payments on it were not made.Coton’s attorney Peter Raben said Friday that his client will enter his plea on Nov. 20 in federal court. That will also be Coton’s first appearance and his arraignment, Raben said. If the judge accepts Coton’s plea he could get on the stand and give a statement called a “plea colloquy,” Raben said.While Coton is up on the stand, Sotolongo might already be in Ruskin just east of St. Petersburg. According to a motion filed by his attorney John Bergendahl, Sotolongo wants to spend about a month in Ruskin renovating and supervising the renovations of two residences. According to the motion, the work cannot be done without Sotolongo being there.U.S. Magistrate Judge David E. Baker — the same jurist who granted Sotolongo a $250,000 signature bond when Sotolongo was arrested in March — has granted the motion as long as Sotolongo stays in touch daily by phone with a pretrial services office in Tampa. When Sotolongo, Garrett and co-defendant Stephannie Musselwhite were arrested on March 29, Sotolongo was the only one who was held at the John. E. Polk Correctional facility in Sanford because federal prosecutors thought he could be a flight risk.Sotolongo has a record and conviction with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He also has a criminal history in Florida that includes fraud and robbery, court records show.

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